A convicted felon who was a junior college All-American last year, looks for someone to take a chance on him

Prisoners have a saying about the day they're released. Never turn around to look at the building; if you do, you'll be back.

So when 21-year-old Kenny Turner took his freedom walk out of the Mayo Correctional Institution on June 1, 2007, he made sure he kept his eyes straight ahead while screams of encouragement — and warnings — from 150 inmates surrounded him.

"Don't you come back here, young Turner!"

"You don't belong here; prison ain't for you!"

"I want to see you on TV one day!"

Turner was a promising sophomore wide receiver in 2002, playing alongside his best friend and future Pro Bowl running back Chris Johnson for Olympia High School's new varsity football team. Friend and Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Mike Sims-Walker said Turner was the best athlete in the Pine Hills-Mercy Drive community.

"He was better than me, better than Chris; he was better than everybody," Sims-Walker said. "Kenny was always known as the man in football."

But those football dreams halted in a gunfight that summer before his junior season. He was 16 years old.

His subsequent arrest and conviction cost him five years, and two knee injuries cost him two more. Finally, last fall, at Fullerton College, a junior college power, Turner got to show again what he could do on a football field, and he responded by rushing for 1,496 rushing yards, scoring 19 touchdowns and being selected to the National Junior College All-America and All-California Community College first teams.

A surge of adrenaline and fear bolted through Turner's body when he heard gunshots at the East Colonial Chevron gas station July 27, 2002.

Moments earlier, Turner and 21-year-old Yvon Bernard exchanged words as both young men and their friends attempted to stop a fight between a group of teenage girls.

Somewhere along the line, attempts to stop the fight escalated into a dangerous shootout after Bernard took a revolver and fired at least two bullets into the air sometime before 3 a.m., according to police statements. When he heard that, Turner, who was sitting in the back seat of a friend's car with Mike Sims-Walker, reached for a 9-millimeter. The boys did not know the bullets were shot into the air.

Growing up in a rough part of Pine Hills, Turner and his friends were not unfamiliar with occasional dangers of the street. It had never hit this close to home, though.

"It wasn't a time to be scared. You were really fighting for your life," Sims-Walker said. "We weren't the type of people to get involved in those actions [shooting]. But you always (had) to protect yourself when you grew up in that type of environment."

Turner shot in the direction of Bernard, who jumped into the car of a passerby. Bernard was hit in the back. The driver of the car, 18-year-old Aruni Andre, was hit in the shoulder and leg. Both were treated and released at Orlando Regional Hospital.

Turner and his friends were not harmed.

"I wasn't thinking, I was just going," Turner said. "No one was going to hurt me and my friends."

His high school coach, Mike Cullison, knew something was wrong when Turner suddenly stopped coming to summer camp the following week.

"I didn't hear from him. He was gone," Cullison said. "You're like, what the heck happened here? Chris [Johnson] knew, but he didn't offer up any information."

Johnson knew there was trouble. But no one, not even Turner, understood just how serious the charges would be. Turner considered the shooting to be an act of self-defense. The police did not. And the fact that he was underage and not licensed to carry a weapon did not help his case.

Turner faced five charges, including attempted first-degree murder with a firearm and aggravated battery, which then carried a sentence of 20 years to life in prison.

On his attorney's advice, Turner changed his initial plea of not guilty to take a deal for a lesser charge — a second-degree felony for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

He was sentenced to five years in federal prison on Jan. 10, 2003 — 11 days before his 17th birthday. Turner gave all his clothes to his best friend, Chris. There was no need for possessions like that anymore.

"We were looking forward to a big season," Johnson said about their time at Olympia. "Then I was out here by myself."

A boy among men

As is typical of the prison system, Turner was transferred to five prisons in five years — most of them in South Florida. He ended up in the Mayo correctional facility almost two hours west of Jacksonville.

No matter which penitentiary he was in, he was the youngest, or almost the youngest, inmate there. But he said he was never afraid.

"I grew up around a lot of older guys," he said.

What kept Turner going was the dream that he would one day play football again. All day, every day, was the same. Work out, play cards, play basketball and study.

He earned his high school GED on July 28, 2003 — one year ahead of his expected graduation date. He also became a licensed plumber and electrician.

His high school coach gave him a workout program to stay in good physical shape. His father, Kenny Turner Sr., a pastor at None Shall Lack Outreach Ministries, worked on building Kenny Jr.'s humility and mending their relationship during his monthly visits.

The father-son relationship turned rocky when Kenny Turner Sr., who served in the military, divorced Kenny's mother Demisa when Kenny was 12. Shortly after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, the father was stationed in South Carolina before moving back to Florida the next year.

"I asked him was he willing to lose all his talent for this? Now he realizes it wasn't worth it," Kenny Sr. said. "I don't think trouble comes to tear us down. It comes to correct us."

Starting over

When Turner left the Mayo facility 2 1/2 years ago, the first person to greet him was a 14-year-old girl with gangly legs who peeled away from her mother's car and sped toward him. Mohogoney was only 9 when her older brother left home in 2002.

"She was the fastest of them all," Turner chuckled.

After long embraces and tears, the family, including a new baby sister, Requel, drove straight from the prison to Orlando International Airport to pick up Chris Johnson, who was coming home for a summer visit before his senior season at East Carolina.

There were no long speeches or sentimental words when the best friends saw each other again.

"I said, 'What is that on your face? A beard?' " Johnson laughed.

Ice broken.

Soon, the two were working out together, pushing each other's football talents — with Turner pushing a little harder.

"I don't think I'd be able to do that … I don't think I'd go out [of prison] and pursue my dream," Johnson said.

But what happened to Turner served as motivation for his buddies.

"It played a role [in our lives] in knowing that life is serious." Bruce Peters, a childhood friend, said. "No one would have expected that something like that would happen. Once we seen it, it really woke us up.

"You have to do the right thing. Even though it was an experience for him, we gained knowledge from that and it helped us out a lot."

And Turner is drawing inspiration — and help — from his friends. He's determined to play college football — if he can only figure out how and where.

Peters spoke to his former junior college coaches at Compton College, which later merged with Fullerton College, a junior college football power in California.

Turner had not played football for five years, but the Fullerton coaches were willing to take a chance.

"I said, 'Hey, this is the real deal. My word is good for it,' " Peters said. "At the time, Kenny didn't have any film. But we were working out every day, and I saw that it was still in him. It could have been 10 years [away from football]. He's born like that."

Peters was right.

Second chance

Turner immediately impressed. He was a few inches taller, now 5 feet 10, but the speed and skill were there.

His first play during practice was a touchdown run.

But there would be setbacks. During a practice in September 2007, Turner tore his right ACL. He reinjured the same knee during a cut on a kickoff return in September 2008.

"I cried," Turner said about reinjuring his knee. "It wasn't the pain, and it hurt, my feelings were hurt. I was about to get a plane ticket and go. I never felt pain like that. I felt like I lost the love of my life."

His family and friends told him he had come too far to quit. So he underwent a second operation on his right knee and began another round of rehabilitation. He returned to play his first full season in 2009.

"The doctor told him he wouldn't be able to play again," said Fullerton running backs coach Phil Austin. "He wasn't the same, but he's still better than everybody else. He carried us."

Austin said Turner runs a 4.4 in the 40 with a knee brace. When fully healthy, he was clocked at 4.3 seconds.

But Austin knows talent alone will not be enough to get Turner a college scholarship. He estimated that of 25 coaches he'd spoken with, 10 gave him an outright "no" when they heard about Turner's background.

Turner's friends, Sims-Walker and Johnson, spoke to their respective colleges — UCF and East Carolina. But neither school has shown interest.

"I don't know what the rules are in the NCAA, but any job you're looking for, that becomes one of the questions: Have you been convicted of a felony? And no matter how you've changed, no matter what your life is now, sometimes you can get trapped by that record," said former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy. Dungy has worked with several prison ministries and mentors NFL quarterback Michael Vick. "And it's not fair, but that is life. You have to work through it."

Turner would not be the first person with a felony record to receive a scholarship, but those opportunities are scarce. School presidents and athletic directors generally consider a convicted felon a liability.

"We all worry about that, we all worry about perception — whether it's the university or your own family, because perception is reality," said TCU coach Gary Patterson. "But with that, we're all in it to give a person a second chance. That's what we do on a day-to-day basis."

A few weeks ago, Turner brought self-made highlight tapes to the Orlando World Marriott Center, the site of the American Football Coaches Association Conference. He and his high school coach, Cullison, passed them out to every coach who was willing to take a copy.

Things are beginning to look up. Turner took an official visit to Hawaii this weekend, where Austin, his Fullerton running backs coach, played. Arkansas State visited Turner in California last week.

And when they ask about his story, he is not ashamed to share.

"I do, but I don't [regret the past]," Turner said. "I needed that to slow me down. Anything could have happened. I have friends that are dead, friends in jail; that could have easily been me.

"I'm not that same person anymore. In there [prison], you have two kinds of people. Those who take it for good or for bad. Some take it as a trade to be a criminal. I learned to be humble and stay to myself. If you can maneuver around that, out here is easy."

No one in Turner's corner doubts that he will one day join his friends on the football field.